AMERA adieu

August has slipped through my fingers like a handful of sand. Already work at AMERA has ended in Cairo and I find myself thousands of kilometres from dearly loved colleagues and friends. A few people have been searching for updates on this once again languishing site, so let me start with the emotional goodbye I wrote to the staff and community facilitators (interpreters of language and culture, accompanists for vulnerable clients and staff for home visits).

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Dear friends,

It is with deep sadness but intense gratitude that I write today to say “Salam until we meet again.” Over the past seven months it has been a great privilege to work with each of you. I have learned much from and with you… and, taban, the beautiful souls that come through our doors each day with their challenges, children and resilience. This is truly the most fulfilling work I have ever done.

I have come to think of AMERA as a lighthouse, and each of us inside as the listenful love, faith and hope that help to illumine paths in the fog of this very broken system and lighten the heaviness of many refugees lives in Egypt. Even if we cannot always ‘do’ things for others, I believe that simply sharing their journey and truly hearing them can be incredibly humanizing. At the same time I think there is often much progress as a result of our dedication, creativity, and advocacy and I trust that this will remain (even as staff come and go) and deepen as we continue to develop a vision for our role in Egypt.

Albert Camus’ (slightly adapted) words are, I think, a beautiful echo of our calling at AMERA:

We must stitch up what has been torn apart, render justice imaginable in the world which is so obviously unjust, make happiness meaningful for [those whose lives have been] poisoned by the misery of [conflict and persecution]. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But tasks are called superhuman when [people] take a long time to complete them, that is all.

Even for superhumans such as yourselves it is easy to become burned out from this work day after day. I think the key for me has been to seek perspective and hope (though I am certainly not successful all the time!). When I say this I am not implying blind hope… as one quote I love says:

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world… Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.

I wish you strength, peace and determination as you continue in this good work (amidst the frustrations of this system). Inshallah we will meet again in Egypt or elsewhere in the coming months and years. (I’m hoping to return for three months next summer, if not before).

Godspeed and love,

Rachel